Pokemon is one of the best games in the world. However, it does not come
without its sinners in and around it. So, it is with my great pleasure, that
I talk about THE THREE DEADLY SINS OF POKEMON.

Deadly Sin #1: Dissing

The number two diss is:

"Pokemon is for little kids."

Oh, yeah, I guess that's why Wizards of the Cost prints "approved for kids 10
and older" on all its booster packs. About one-third of the players at my
local League are adults! That gets me into the number one diss:

"Pokemon is for losers and nerds."

Excuse me? Pokemon is a game of great mental skill and strategy. it takes a
lot of strategy to build a deck, and also to play it. But, if you don't feel
like flexing your mental muscle, Mr. Disser, I'll remind you about this 15
years from now, when you're pumping my gas.

Deadly Sin #2: HATE

"Pokemon is evil!" "Pokemon is the devil's work!" POKEMON IS A GAME!!! There
are no satanic messages if you play a PokeRap backwards... you don't have to
sell your soul to buy a booster pack box... it's just a game! AN INNOCENT,
FUN GAME GEARED TOWARDS KIDS IMPORTED FROM JAPAN!!!

I'm surprised no one's tried to call "Digimon" evil. Why? I like Digimon, but
let me count the characters with "Devi" (devil) in their name:

1. Devimon
2. DemiDevimon
3. LadyDevimon
4. MarineDevimon
5. IceDevimon
6. Devidramon

And, the crem de la crem (French for "sour cream"), all the way from Japan,
SkullSatanmon!

Man, all heck's gonna break loose when the Harry Potter card game comes out
at Christmas.

And now, the final Deadly Sin: THEFT

That's right, and this is also the worst. I swear, one person with sticky
fingers, an impatience for good cards, and a total disregard of the Eighth
Commandment can ruin it for all of us.
    Take, for example, my school's Collectible Card Club. My hometown,
Wellesley, is the cultural equivalent of a baked potato. NO movie theatres,
NO arcades, NO candy stores, and (the horror!), NO card stores. I have to go
out of town for the Pokemon League! You can imagine how excited I was when I
found out my school was starting a collectible card club. However, soon they
banned trading cards, because kids were getting bad trades. So, I took a
break to tweak my deck, and, when I came back, guess what I found out? They
had banned Pokemon cards COMPLETELY from the club, because people were being
robbed!

So, take this in mind, and, if you steal, you will be forever in Pokemon
heck, being roasted by Charizard, battered by Machamp, and being electrocuted
by Raichu.

Sandblaster
JRSWizard@aol.com